Chains of Death, Embrace of Life
by Ghille Dhu the Blue
Summary: From the chains of death, into the embrace of life. A transition that leaves Mira Shepard with many things to ponder on, and realisations to come to terms with.


An experimental piece of writing, exploring a pivotal experience, and just something I did inbetween feeding the baby, winding him, and getting him to sleep. Safe to say, as much as I adore kids, this girl is waiting for many years to actually have her own. I'm exhausted. This was a short piece, written in approximately thirty minutes.

* * *

Nobody could transcend the chains of death.

Nobody, but she, it seemed.

Mira Shepard stared up, flat on the bed in her oversized cabin, out into the void of space. She had died out there, lifeless, her body had floated through the great expanse, without direction, nor conscious realisation, that not even Mira Shepard could defeat death. Death was calm, unassuming, it simply was. Life was harder, chaos and pain, always moving forwards. She wasn't sure which one she preferred.

Life was precious, a soldier like her could appreciate that. Grasping life and truly treasuring the gift was important and vital to truly living, but just because you lost a gift, it didn't mean it had to be replaced. It wouldn't be that same gift, that had been so treasured, it would be an artificial replacement. It didn't matter that her heart was beating within her chest, her lungs were drawing breath, and she still stubbed her toes with the accompanying chorus of expletives.

Time hadn't stopped, just because her heart had ceased to beat. It had moved forwards, people had moved forwards, and she was the same woman who she had been two years ago. Trapped in a place away from the passage of time, lost in the abyss of nothing, she had been dead to the world. The world had been dead to her, Lieutenant Commander Shepard. She had been dead and gone.

Her eyes screwed shut, she couldn't look out anymore.

She remembered writhing in the air, as if she was part of some grotesque dance. Her hands clawing helplessly at her helmet, desperation to breathe, even if taking the helmet off would do nothing but speed up her demise. Her body twisting , her attempts to patch the oxygen line ending in failure. The realisation that it was the end.

In her final seconds, all she could think about, was mundane things. The final kiss she had shared with _him_ only an hour before. One sneaky kiss. She could hear his deep rasping voice in her ear, speaking of the future, the life that they would shape. It was amazing how fast her thoughts could be ran through, when time was slipping away, beyond the reach of the fingertips stretching out into the distance.

The debris slamming against her, just as her eyes were unable to stay open, and the final focused thought..._Kaidan_.

She remembered every moment until then, it was crystal clear, she could describe the terrible beauty of flames, as her ship was ripped apart. The Normandy, the pride of the fleet, falling apart, giving no resistence. The unwielding beauty, the vessel that had carried Shepard and her crew, from one fight to the next, was left as nothing but her equivalent of ashes.

However, in a way, the Normandy had been reborn from her ashes, just as Shepard had been pulled from the silent depths of death. If anything had been proven when they both had initially met their demise, was that even the most invincible seeming, person or ship, had nothing when up against the designs of those with more power.

She was no Siha, as Thane Krios had entitled her, she was infinitely human.

Infinitely human, not just in the sense of species, but of the fallibility of a young race, moving forwards, at a speed that caused them to trip up often. She had been held up as the pinnacle of the human race. Named as the first SPECTRE of the human race. A woman who had became a legend while she still roamed the Galaxy.

No matter who she was, what she was, where she was, it was never far from her, the fact that Mira Shepard, could die again. Dying again, that wasn't what plagued her, she had died once and it was nothing. There was nothing to fear in the act of dying, or what would follow it. She had once read that it wasn't the dead that should be pitied, but those that were left behind. Those words were not sweet comfort, they wrenched her heart from within her chest, forced salty tears to welling up in her eyes.

Dying for others wasn't as noble as she had believed. It may be heroic, but it was cowardly and weak. True nobility was in conquering what challenges lay before you, and surviving. In survival, there was a victory transcending any victory bought with death. Mira had to live through the coming war. That said, living was harder than dying, she had proven already, that even the Paragon of Humanity, was nothing in the face of a stronger threat.

The chains of death had released her for now.

Life had unlocked them and held her close.

Life was harder.

Death was easier.

Life was rewarding.

Death was nothing.

Life was worth fighting for.

* * *

_Chains of death that bound me well_

_You've lost me now_

_Release me from on what I dwell_

_I've said goodbye_

_Life has welcomed me in an embrace_

_You can't linger now_

_For I have walked on the path of life_

_You will wait for me_

_That path will lead me far away_


End file.
